The North Carolina Utilities Commission on May 10 authorized Duke Energy Progress LLC to construct the generation components of the company’s proposed Hot Springs microgrid project consisting of a 2-megawatt solar facility and a 4-megawatt lithium-based battery storage facility. The project, to be located in Madison County, is designed to provide an innovative grid solution…
During the 2018-2019 winter, spot prices at the Algonquin Citygate, a trading hub and benchmark for natural gas prices in New England, remained under $14 per million British thermal units and averaged at about $7 in January and February, according to a May 13 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Last winter, the bomb…
U.S. power plants are projected to generate 2 percent less power during the summer months of 2019 compared to last year due to changes in the mix of energy sources, according to a May 9 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Coal is forecast to supply 25 percent of generation this summer, down from…
A series of bills which sought to tackle, monitor or challenge the issue climate change failed to pass the Republican-controlled legislature in Montana before it adjourned on April 25. Introduced by representative Nary Dunwell, a Democrat, HB 193 would establish a carbon tax and create ways to distribute the revenue from it. The bill would require…
The South Carolina legislature on May 9 passed a measure that will eliminate the 2 percent cap on net metering for rooftop solar customers until a successor program is in place. The bill directs the Public Service Commission to open a generic docket by January 1, 2020 to investigate and determine the costs and benefits…
A bipartisan group of state legislators re-introduced a pair of bills aimed at getting Pennsylvania to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Christopher Rabb, a Democrat, introduced HB 1425, while Tom Killion, a Republican, is sponsoring the Senate version, SB 630. The proposals will set benchmarks for phasing out nonrenewable energy by requiring 50 percent…
The District of Columbia’s electric suppliers retired nearly 68,000 solar renewable energy credits in 2018, compared to about 31,000 last year, yet the solar requirement rose by a mere 0.17 percent and retail sales by 3 percent, according to the Public Service Commission’s annual report on compliance with the renewable energy portfolio standards. The report…
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo on May 9 announced that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation established regulations requiring all the power plants in the state to meet new emission limits for carbon dioxide. No existing coal-fired sources are expected to continue beyond 2020 under the new rule, as emissions control technology needed for…
The New Hampshire legislature passed a measure on May 8 amending regulations governing the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, to be consistent with the program’s updated model rule adopted in December 2017. The nine-state compact established the nation’s first mandatory emissions trading program. The bill revises the statewide budget allowance,…
The United States produced a record amount of energy from various sources in 2018, reaching 96 quadrillion British thermal units, 8 percent higher than in the previous year, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest Monthly Energy Review. While fossil fuels like crude oil and natural gas saw increases of 17 and 12 percent respectively…
California’s large investor-owned utilities procured about 38 percent of their total generation from renewable resources, which accounted for nearly 42 percent of their total generation costs in 2018, according to a May 8 report from the California Public Utilities Commission. Wind and solar dominated utility power contracts, with the average prices for contracts dropping to…
Tucson Electric Power Company entered into an agreement to join the Western Energy Imbalance Market from April 2022, according to a May 8 news release from the California Independent System Operator Corporation. Tucson estimates the participation to result in about $13 million in annual energy cost savings for its customers by expanding real-time access to…
